I make quilts sometimes!

It's been a while since I pulled out all my crafty toys and got to play.

I was recently invited to a friend's shower, so I jumped at the chance to make a quick baby quilt.  All of the fabric was already in my stash, and as you can see I did about the easiest pattern I could think of.

Overall it was a fun and easy reintroduction to quilting and a reminder of how fun it is to cut pretty fabric into little pieces and the sew it all back together again.  It also reminded me that I need to work on my binding technique a bit.

It was well received, which always makes me happy!

I think it's fair to say that my quilting bug is back and there will be lots more fun little quilts in my future.  I just hope I find enough babies to give them away to!

Actual Crafty Content

In between all of my other summer adventures this year I have actually been doing a little bit of quilting.  I made this one in a bit of a rush between school getting out and my trip to Las Vegas.

I didn't have months and months to do anything complicated so I chose a fun pattern with lots of fabrics that had been used in other baby blankets for mutual friends, and a few special fabrics for this little girl.

I really love I-spy quilts, because you can tell stories with them, or play matching games, or counting games.  Heck, I really should just make myself one because I like them so much.

This particular little girl lives in France with her American mother and French father, so I made sure to include some flashes of France (see if you can spot the Eiffel Tower) and allusions to America (I spy some cowboy boots and an American flag).  And then, of course, there are rocket ships, kittens, pirates, pumpkins, and baked potatoes.  Because - why not?

I didn't have enough fabric in my stash for the back so I picked up something with a little international flair:  

And a few French phrases:

The backing all together:

It may not be heirloom quality, but it was made with love!!

Countdown

It seems like the holiday seasons start earlier and earlier every year, and I guess I'm not helping much.  I got a head-start on my holiday quilting and have finished up a little advent calendar quilt.

I know that I don't do well with super-precise piecing, so I went for a slightly wonky look.

 The date-counter is supposed to be a candy-cane but I wasn't super careful about matching up the stripes.  It's little, so I might re-do it if I can find some more scraps of that fabric.

The backing has two little sleeves.  I'll need to get a dowel or figure out some kind of way to hang it.  I didn't think that far ahead... but it's got sleeves... so that's a start!!

The trickiest part was the letters... I printed them out, and copied them onto iron-on backing... then ironed that onto the fabrics.  It took one or two before I managed to get them to look right-side-up.  

 

Ironed the backing to the letters, cut them out,  ironed them onto the quilt... and then tried to do some outline stitching.  As I stated above, it was somewhat less than precise.

 

Here's a little close up of the embroidery and trim. 

Honestly, it was a lot of work for such a small quilt... but I love it.  I think it will look festive when it's finally up on the wall.  

Sisters Oudtoor Quilt Show - part 2

As promised, here are the rest of my pictures from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. (actually - I thought I had set this to auto post... but apparently not!) 

I liked the way this one blended some traditional piecing in the background with the pictorial quality of the flower in the foreground... so pretty!

 There were quite a few modern quilts on display, and this one just looked like a party - so colorful and fun!

 

And here's another quilt with a sense of humor - the moustache quilt made with shirts from the quilter's husband.

I saw a lot of Halloween quilts and they're inspiring me to make one for myself... but this one went way above and beyond the others - the haunted house was very 3-D and had so many little details. 

 

Just one little bit of detail... seriously, the whole thing was so intricate, I loved it.  I can't imagine how many hours of work would have gone into this - in the planning alone!

Every year there's a quilt group called "Cover-to-Cover" who read a book and make some quilts inspired by the book.  This year the book was Hugo, and the quilts were, as usual, amazing.

The quilting looked like clock-work and they even included gears ... so cool!

This one was all stitch-work... there's no piecing, just painting with thread - amazing.

 Detail of the mechanical man.  Loved it!
 

 In the city hall, they displayed a quilt project called "Two Rivers, Three Sisters" and what they had done was have several quilt artist each create a quilt including the river... and then they were displayed as one flowing river.

Each individual quilt was gorgeous and incredibly detailed on its own... but the end result was breathtaking.

 

I couldn't fit the entire display in one shot... but you get the idea.


So that's it.  I actually have a bunch more pictures, but this gives you more than a little taste of the show.  I took a much more laid-back approach to this show... and I'm sure I missed several sections.  But as usual it was well worth the trip out there.  I would encourage any of you quilters out there to visit, and even send a quilt there to show.  Such a fun event for the quilting community!!

Time And Relative Dimension In Space

I may be a bit new to the Doctor Who world, but I love the Doctor and all he stands for.  I've been so busy the last few years I would have loved the opportunity to step into that beautiful blue box travel the universe live all my crazy adventures, and then pop back home in time to go to school / work again. 

Alas, I'll have to settle for making my own mini-tardis pillow.

There's some basic piecing, and a bit of embroidery... but the big secret is, I used Time-Lord Technology.  I poured all of time & space into the heart of the TARDIS.


  

 The TARDIS is ... as you must know... bigger on the inside!

 

 It can travel through space... and time!  (although it only travels through time forward... and very slowly. ;)  )

A little bit of timey-wimey outline quilting on the TARDIS, and some wibledy-wobledy meander quilting in the sky.

Instructions which will be roundly ignored were embroidered on the door. 


It's just a lap-sized quilt.  Although, since I'm short, that's usually all I ever need.  Ooooh... and the plus side of making a pillow-quilt is that when it's all pulled out... I have a little pocket for keeping my feet warm! 

I think the Doctor would agree - Quilts are cool!

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2013 - Part One

Once again, it's my favorite summer event - the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  If you love quilts, it's worth a trip out to this show, at least once in your life.  It may not have as many competition-level quilts as the show in Houston, but maybe that's why I love it so much.  Just beautiful quilts, out in the sunshine. 

 The weather this year was amazing, absolutely perfect, 82 degrees, bright sunshine and a light breeze.  I was plenty warm enough, but the heat-haters out there weren't melting either.  And no rain to end the show short, so that was nice. 

Every year, I say I'm just going to pick out a few of my favorite quilts to show here... but then I start going through and they're all my favorites.  So it'll take a couple of posts to show off all my favorite quilts.

Sunbonnet Sue is such a classic, and I love seeing how quilters continue to reinvent her year after year.  This one shows has her "bonnet" as different flowers.  The names of each flower are embroidered in the corner of each block.  Very creative and cute. 

Dresden plate quilts are another classic, this one was beautifully executed!

I saw a few examples of this winter-embroidery pattern, but this was my favorite.  The blue embroidery thread and iridescent quilting thread just gave it such a snowy feel. 

 

Pinwheels are another favorite of mine... I just love scrap quilts.  

There were some breath-taking works of art, both traditional and more modern, but sometimes looking at those quilts can make me feel intimidated - I don't think I'll ever reach that skill level.  But then I see quilts like these, bright, beautiful, well executed quilts and I think - yeah... these are wonderful too!  So I appreciate seeing these normal-skill-level quilts, and would encourage any hobby-quilter to think about sending a quilt out to this show.  It's just fun to see them all!

 

 But speaking of amazing quilts I could never make - this sunset quilt was gorgeous.  The ones below just drew me in with their colors!
 

It wasn't just amazing works of art or traditional scrap quilts.  There were also quilts with a sense of humor.  This one really drew a crowd and had people laughing.  It was titled "What women want." 

So there's your first taste of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show of 2013.  I'll post a few more pictures later. 

School's out for summer!!!

Spring term finished up in June, so I've actually had a few weeks to relax and breathe.  The very first thing I did was pull out my sewing machine and start playing with fabric.

Like most respectable crafters, I have an abundance of works in progress... fabric purchased, patterns planned out, everything I need except for time to work on them! 

I've had it in my head to do a Doctor Who TARDIS quilt for a while and finally started putting it all together.  

This is just the mock up to see if I had all the pieces right.  But I've been working on it and should have a finished object to show off soon. 


Here's the unquilted top:

In other news, the Sister's Outdoor Quilt show is this Saturday and I will be attending again so look forward to a post about that!

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show - part 5 The Teachers Tent

It was just after lunchtime - maybe 1pm when I started feeling the first drops of rain.  I made a bee-line for the Teacher's Tent so that I could see some of the 'the best of the best' quilts in the show.  As I walked I could see volunteers talking to each other about what to do if it started to sprinkle "Hold the bottom edge of the quilt under the awning to keep it off the rain."  and what to do if it started really raining "If you feel comfortable getting up there - take the quilt down, if not the quilt rescue team will come by and get it with a ladder."  Organizers on bikes with walkie-talkies on their hips were zipping here and there to make sure everyone was prepared to protect the quilts.  There was definitely a buzz of excitement rippling through the show!

Fortunately, the teacher's tent was just that - one big tent in the middle of a yard.  So the quilts were relatively well protected.

Absolutely loved the colors of this one.

So beautiful!!

The colors, the stitching, the unique shape... loved it!!!

This was a neat applique piece, with a series of proverbs written into the path.  Very cute.

These bird quilts were flat out AMAZING!!!  The fuziness of the baby birds, the reflection of the bird on the water.... just extraordinary work!

And then there was this completely non-representational quilt.... loved the change in scale, and the contrast of the colors.  Fantastic!

These were just flat out sweet.  LOVED the hippos.

Then there was this funky modern quilt... loved the curves and bold colors.

And here's a quilt from Portland's own "Oh Fransson"  It was neat to see it in person.  But no... I didn't touch it. ;)


After I adored all of these inspiring quilts (in a rather over crowded tent),the rain really started picking up and I saw folks pulling down some of the quilts.  I knew from previous years that the library at the end of town scheduled a used-book sale the same weekend as the quilt show.  So I headed down there to hide out inside until the rain passed.

That was a good idea really... I managed to buy an old quilting book for all of $3, and got to see all the quilts that were on display in the library.

These were a few from another group of book-inspired quilters.  Can't remember the name of the book though... something that took place in New York.

 This amazing crazy quilt was probably my favorite of the show.  It was hung quite high so I didn't get as good of a look as I wanted.  Still... check out the intricate embroidery stitching. 

So I camped out in the library for a good long time, flipping through the book I'd purchased.  But really it was disappointing that the rain was cutting the show short. 

Eventually it seemed to let up, so I went out side.  Most of the outside quilts had been taken down, but I figured I could shop-hop and see a good portion of the quilts that had been hung inside the participating shops. 

Mother Nature had other plans!!!  I was no more than two blocks away from the library when BA BOOM!!!!  Thunder and lightening just cracked open the sky and the rains came down like an absolute flood!  It just would.not.let.up.  I first hid under an awning...but then darted across the street to a little diner.  Then... there was nothing really to do except watch the storm.  It was quite spectacular.  Big booms of thunder and flashes of lightening that light up the cloud darkened sky.  As far as storms go... this one was one to see!  Absolute buckets of rain followed by HAIL and then even more rains!!

I just got this one quick video... but you get the idea.

Eventually the storm stopped, and I could do some shopping, and saw a few of the inside quilts.  Pretty much everyone who had driven in for the day was gone, and those of us who'd come on buses were making the best of things.  But really, to be honest, it was quite a disappointment.  On the best of days it's nearly impossible to see ALL the quilts that are up, and this time... I think I only saw about half. 

Oh well, what I saw I did enjoy... and there's always next  year.  If nothing else, this year will go down in the books as the first time in the 37 year history of the show that they got rained out, and I can say I was a part of it!!!